The Vermont National Guard is getting ready to send its air ambulance company to Iraq.
The guard says the 66 members of the South Burlington-based C Company of the 3rd Battalion, 126 Aviation Regiment will leave Vermont in September. After training in Texas, the soldiers and their equipment will be sent to Iraq.
The company uses helicopters as air ambulances.
The company already served one tour in Iraq, returning in 2006. The guard says during that yearlong mission the company carried more than 1,000 patients.
The Vermont unit will be joined in training and Iraq with a sister unit from Massachusetts. The two units will travel to Iraq with 12 helicopters. The companies are due to return from Iraq in September of 2011.